


Like air on my wet skin

by Saltylocks



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers Tower, F/M, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Post-Avengers (2012), Pre-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Stark Tower, Tags May Change, mentions of stucky - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:33:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27365851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saltylocks/pseuds/Saltylocks
Summary: Natasha is an Alpha and Bruce is an omega. What will happen?
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this like five years ago and then I lost it in my google docs. Looking for something else I found it again, and decided to fix it up and post it. 
> 
> This is set somewhere in between Avengers (2012) and Age of Ultron, so just the core Avengers (and Bucky, naturally) and they all live in Stark Tower, it's soft ABO-rules and mating/heat cycles, and everyone is poly and sleeps with whomever, kind of, but they still are who they are and the world is pretty much the same. I know it's lazy world building but I don't feel like it, ok?
> 
> It's also set before Age of Ultron because I hated how they handled Natasha/Bruce in that movie, and I think they deserved better.

All her life, Natasha had tried to fight her instincts, suppress her needs and blend in as a beta. When she joined the Avengers, she started to get more and more comfortable with not hiding, "getting soft" as Tony called it, or "more ladylike" as Clint dared before she smacked him over the head. He was the only one she let see her less cool, the only one she trusted with her secret.

When Bucky showed up and was revealed to actually be an omega, she gained a new friend. They would stay up at night and talk: there was this need in her to vent about the Red Room. She started to laugh more after that, she started to believe there might be redemption for her too. Bucky stayed with her because he felt safe with her, maybe because she was an alpha and she was strong, but it never felt sexual, just warm and genuine and friendly. She was warming up to the other Avengers too.

She always had a soft spot for Bruce Banner, the monster inside him too, ever since their first flight-fight on the Helicarrier. After a couple of missions she realized Hulk would never be like that again, always treating her gently, calling her “red” as the Hulk and miss Romanovna (very polite!) when they happen to meet. She knew he wasn’t into her or anything, but he reminded her of herself and the anger they both had inside and needed to be in control of. After a while, she even felt safe around him, the others were super in some ways and vulnerable in other but Banner could take care of himself, she never had to protect him. Smarter than most too, smarter than Tony, but doesn't try to use it for his own purposes, or to gain power. For god's sake, she had to extract him in some remote part of India, almost like he was too humble for his own good. 

Bruce was also the first on the team to not make a pass on her. She was barely starting to relax after they first moved into the Tower, at breakfast Tony took one whiff of her and the next minute he was telling her "you know, I never noticed how green your eyes were before", or some shit, his love for another’s Alpha hormones clearly showing. She could hear Clint snickering next to her. Lucky for Tony he was just a man, and her friend, so she didn't launch at him, she just smiled.

“Do you know why I’m called the Black Widow?” she asked, her voice low.

Tony shakes his head, confused as to where the conversation was going.

"Because her m.o. is fuck 'em and kill 'em," Clint chimes in, stuffing his face with some pancakes. 

Tony pales a bit. 

"No, no, Clint, that was not how I got the name, you know that,” she corrected him, not showing how much she enjoyed the ruse. “You see, Tony, Black Widows eats their mate after sleeping with them."

Clint shoulders are shaking from withheld laughter. Tony looks between them. 

"You are kidding, right?"

"Russian winters are long and cold, and meat is kind of hard to come by."

She batted her lashes at him. The millionaire's smile was still there, only stiffer. She could almost see the shiver running down his spine.

"Okay, so, I need to get going, I’ll be in my lab, tell Jarvis if you need anything."

They waited until he was gone to break out in laughter and high five each other. 

"Nice one," Clint says. “Still got it!”

They relaxed again, munching on some bacon.

"You do smell more like an Alpha today though" he added. "New perfume? Don't be surprised if the others react to it."

She sniffed herself and sure enough, she smelled like restful Alpha. Huh. She didn't know she could produce that smell. Not even Clint knew.

Steve and Bruce arrived at breakfast at the same time, Bruce gave her a surprised look and got started on the coffee, but Steve took a couple of whiffs and looked wistful. He whistled all the way to the sink as he pulled up the frying pan and cracked a few eggs, asking them if they wanted scrambled eggs. Bruce, Natasha and Clint nodded, always good to get some extra energy. Steve made several batches of pancake batter too, and in a third pan he put some more bacon, all in well rehearsed movements.

"When it was just Buck and me, I was the one to make the food, even though I ate very little... Hey, I thought you would sleep a little longer?"

They turned to see the Winter Soldier hang out by the door to the kitchen.

"I was hungry," he shrugged, an unsure hunch in his shoulders that said,”am I welcome here?”

Natasha smiled when Steve motioned him over, stealing a quick kiss. The soldier would have dodged it easily but only looked vaguely annoyed when he drew back from his boyfriend. He gave the others defiant looks, like he thought they might be against two men kissing, but the other avengers didn't bother with it. 

"Sleep well?" Natasha asked, and Bucky smiled a little as her scent laid over everything like a soft blanket, seeping into his mind like syrup. 

"Sure thing, doll," he drawled, a remnant from his days as a New York youngster. 

Bucky easily dodged her angry glances and then Steve announced that breakfast was ready. They all sat down to eat. Bruce served them newly ground coffee while mumbling something about working a few months in a coffee shop.

Natasha was distantly aware that everyone paid extra attention to her. Its was weird, she knew she should be more concerned, about how Steve leaned into her from one side, Bucky from the other, how Clint asked her how she's doing with a playful look in his eyes as he brought her more food. She couldn’t bring herself to care though, feeling like the warm centre the whole world circled. Even Bruce got this glazed over look in his eyes, even though he kept his distance, only touching her hand briefly when leaning in with a fresh cup and then dragging his hand away like she burnt him. 

Tony came back, his hands greasy and face covered in black oil.

"Thought I smelled coffee, is that your doing, Brucie?"

They scrambled away from each other but all still sitting too close.

"I knew it!" Tony said smugly, eying them and waving a finger, "something's up, and when I find out what... Jarvis, I need a hormone level reading of everyone in this room!" 

"Sir, all readings are within human normal range, high parasympathetic hormone levels detected in all present except for you and Dr Banner."

"What?” Tony’s eyes narrowed as he dragged in a breath. “None of you is ever that cool. What did you guys do?"

"Steve was whistling and making breakfast. That might have something to do with it," Clint said lazily, leaning back into his chair.

Tony looked less than convinced.

"Yeah, maybe."

Still, Tony seemed reluctant to leave, sitting down at the table rather than going back to his workshop. The others continued eating, the relaxed feeling slowly continuing to spread through the room. Natasha just wished everyone would sit closer. Her pack of misfits. Bruce too. Especially Bruce.

"Bruce, the coffee is so good, it even has little hearts in the milk. Where did you learn that?" Natasha asked him, trying to drag him closer by batting her eyelashes.

Bruce actually smiled, something he rarely did, as he remembered.

"I worked in this small town for a while in a place called Little Milan, an old man from Italy ran the place. I started up wiping the floors in the morning, but he saw something in me and taught me the trade. Beans and blends, you know, and origin and everything. He treated me like a son, talked a lot of his own son who had died of the measles. Then I lost control, got angry and hulked out over something, they hunted me out of town, that old guy holding the biggest pitchfork I had ever seen." 

Bruce laughed a little helplessly.

"I'm sorry," Tony said, and everyone looked at him, because he so rarely said anything so heartfelt. 

"Me too, that must have been awful," Steve agreed. 

"That's certainly one way of putting it... Thanks, guys."

"Good morning!" Thor said, coming into the kitchen in a Captain America t-shirt and blue slacks. 

His voice vibrated through them, deep and strong. Natasha felt strangely connected to her friends as they welcomed Thor to sit down with them. She didn't expect him to agree. The second thing he did was even stranger: he kissed her on the cheek. 

"You are a true goddess," he said gently, "and were it not for my lady Jane, which I love dearly and which have asked me to stay true to her alone, I would not hesitate to follow you to the ends of the world."

That statement made the fog clear a little in Natasha's head. Something was up. Why was everyone acting so lovey-dovey all of a sudden? All of them assassins and soldiers and geniuses, and not a single alarm had gone off in their heads? When she got up to get some water, the spell seemed to break for everyone, suddenly looking around and backing up a bit from each other. 

"Work... right," Tony said, blinking slowly a few times. 

"Yes, I should probably go too...," Bruce said and quickly excused himself. 

Steve just looked at Bucky dreamily, until Bucky got enough and dragged him close for a lip crushing kiss.

"Get a room," Clint chuckled as Natasha became aware of Thor's looming height beside her.

"I meant what I said, lady Natasha," he insisted, grabbing a plate and taking what was left of pancakes and bacon. "Only say the word and I will talk with my lady Jane. She will not deny you if she knew your scent..."

Her scent! Had that been what caused all this? If even the alien God of Thunder could smell her, no wonder all the alphas and Bucky had seemed so dazed. 

"I really appreciate it Thor, but I don't want to sleep with you. Stay with your lady, she makes you happy, right?"

"Yes," Thor said, shaking his head and letting go of some of the haze, "yes, she does."

He politely excused himself, passing the lovers still making out against the table and Clint looking at her like a gleeful puppy. 

"Guys, you have your own quarters," she snapped, and when that didn't work, in Russian. Bucky gave her an annoyed look before dragging him and Steve out of there.

"Now I know what Cupid must have felt like," she told Clint, who just grinned at her. She slapped him, hard, and he didn't even flinch. 

"Clint, snap out of it!" she said, taking a few steps back.

"What for?" Clint asked cheerfully and she sighed because they meant he was back on track.

"Because I need you to follow me to the S.H.I.E.L.D. infirmary and take a look at my supressor implant."

~ooo~

The news was... not good. The trained specialists were in protective gear when they gave her the results back. 

"It is your Alpha nature showing,” the lady in the Hazmat suit said, “produced in such quantities they are overriding the hormones in the implant."

"Can you put in another implant?" Natasha asked, already knowing the answer.

"Sorry, miss, too much of a risk", the lady excused herself. "In fact, we should take the old implant out, as its prolonged effects might send your body into overdrive. The best solution would be to go through a few heats and let your hormones stabilise. When did you have your last heat?"

"Had a couple in my teens," she said, "then I've been in suppressors my whole life." 

Heats scare her, the way she turns into a beast, deadly, on a prowl. She had already been a fully trained assassin by fifteen, and the start of her heat had made her targets come to her, drawn to her by her scent. It wasn’t something she wanted to repeat. 

Natasha complied anyway.

Her first heat after removing the suppressants she spent alone, not letting anyone in her room except Clint, and it hurt so bad, having to keep herself from jumping him. He struggled too, but he was still just a beta and therefore the only one she trusted to be relatively unaffected. 

"You are doing good, hang in there," Clint murmured as he locked the door behind him. She clung on to that as she satisfied herself with her hands and the knotting dildo she bought for the occasion. She knew she had done worse things. Only a few more heats, and then she could have the implants.


	2. Chapter 2

Clint wasn’t quite as good at keeping his distance as he thought. She could hear him behind the door. Her space was scent proofed, but he had been inside, drenched in her scent, and he didn’t stay as unaffected as he might have thought. Natashas heat was longer than the normal three days, maybe if it had been shorter his walls wouldn’t have crumbled so easily, but when he was standing there on the fourth morning, eyes glazed over, arms up in surrender, she had no willpower left, nothing left to resist with when he started begging, telling her that they have helped each other out so many times before, and that he could see that she was hurting, and that she could use him, if she wanted to. How could she not let him in? 

There were no words, only gasps, between them as she pounced on him, dragging her teeth over his little beta scent gland, ran her fingers through his hair and pushed him down on the bed. He laid there, moaning, his hands on her body, and even if he wasn’t what she needed, his scent almost non-existent, her body still sang at the prospect of being touched. His cock didn't give her anything close to what she needed, but her heat was almost over, and it rubbed sweetly on her swollen, raw insides. When he was twitching and coming, she did too. For a moment, she was satisfied. Then the guilt hit her instead, and she looked down at the discoloured marks she's left on his neck, the scratches and destroyed clothes from when she ripped them off to get to his skin. 

"Sorry," she said, and Clint said it was fine, but wasn't quite looking at her when he slunk out of her room.

They got through it, they always did, but after, when she was back to her normal self, she seriously thought about building a hatch or something. The second heat, she knew what to expect and stocked up on enough supplies to get through at least a week on her own. 

"You keep out of here," Natasha told Clint.

"It wasn't that bad," he persisted, but did not object. 

The next three days were horrible. She felt unbalanced, she wanted to crawl out of her skin, she had nightmares where she became a spider and the men who had licked her dry, their heads dancing around her singing judgmentally and as she woke up the desire was still there, burning, and she thrashed and screamed, not sure what was dream or reality.

The other avengers were clearly uncomfortable, not sure what to say or do around her after hearing Natasha scream her lungs out for a week straight. Even out of heat, she had briefed them, begrudgingly warned them that she can make them feel sluggish and homely, which made Fury ground her until the heats were over and she can take the suppressors again. Natasha was miserable, spending all day in the sparring rooms in the basement, going through her routines like a mantra. Bruce was always there before her, doing yoga. A couple of weeks later, she had to ask. 

"Is it any good?” she said. “Yoga? For managing... you know, the Hulk?"

Natasha could tell Bruce was so shy talking to her, even after everything that has happened. He offered to teach her some breathing techniques, and she agreed. To her surprise, she liked it. It was against everything she had been taught so far, making her relax in a new way. With that she might be able to control herself, even during her heats.

Eating with the other’s, she noticed she still had that effect on people and accepted that whether she feels more in control, she was not ready for battle yet. Just the thought of having a couple of horny boys surrounding her in the middle of a fight made her shudder.

Bruce kept helping her control and never missed a meeting, even on his bad days when he did yoga with a constant frown on his face, slamming himself angrily forwards into the downwards dog.

“Whoa”, Natasha said, “grumpy much?”

“I'm just so damn tired, and I can't get angry,” Bruce muttered. 

He stopped and took a couple of deep breaths and then he hit his fist into the soft floor. When she twitched, he got a worried guilty look on his face.

"Sorry", he apologised, "I just feel so trapped sometimes, shut up in here."

She nodded and then she had an idea. She moved close to Bruce so the security wouldn't hear them.

"Let's just leave?" she said. "The vents are free of cameras."

He looked like he was going to say no, that it's a bad idea, and then nodded, almost undetectable.

“Right now?” he breathed, a glint of something mischievous in his eyes.

“Right now.”

They got up, she in her pink yoga pants and he in a hoodie and shorts. She seized him up and then they were off, the women’s locker room vents, a few moments of crawling and then they were on the busy streets of New York.

They decided to speak German to not draw as much attention, and that the word for suspected detection was cinnamon bun. Natasha loved being outside and they just strolled towards Brooklyn, passing stores that sold t-shirts with their faces on them. Nobody recognises them though. They buy ice cream near City Hall and sit down in Battery Park. Bruce was smiling with his whole face, she knew he could hear better than her with his super senses and if neither of them could detect a threat, it means they are pretty much safe for now. 

"I can't remember the last time I just did nothing for a whole day, " Bruce said. "Before the Hulk I was all about grades and scholarships and doctorates, and after, well, I always felt unsafe. Not now though. Not around you." 

He looked at her and smiled, totally relaxed, before blushing and turning away. 

"Sorry, that sounded so cheesy, I'm going to shut up now."

Natasha liked when he grinned goofily, the Hulk not directly under his skin. It was a good look on him.

"Don't ever apologise for being happy," she said, smiling back until he makes eye contact with her again. 

Too late she noticed how close he leaned toward her on the bench, his chin touching her shoulder as he sighed, placing his hand on the bench close to her thigh. She knew she should pull away, but she liked having the omega close, she wanted to protect him, keep him safe and happy. So even if some voice in the back of her head shouted warnings at her, probably the assassin training, her instincts overrode them and she moved her body to cover his, letting him nuzzle closer into her neck and scent her, and gods if it wasn't sending shivers down her spine to know that he was so close to her, that wonderful genius humble man. He sighed and it was like they were the only people in the world.

Then, a familiar shape shadowed them and made her assassin brain roll into gear.

"Cinnamonbun," she said, softly.

Bruce blinks and quickly untangled from her. 

Coulson took off his glasses and gave them a stern look.

"Widow. Hulk," he said, using their aliases as he only did when he was mad and was on the brink of almost losing his temper. It meant he was really worried, so Natasha just shrugged and smiled sweetly. 

"Guess you found us, Phil," she admits without a fight and gives Bruce a squeeze before standing up. “Reported it yet?”

“Only the Avengers are aware of your absence today and they didn't seem as worried as me about a deadly assassin and a gamma monster disappearing from the Tower..."

Too late he realized his choice of words. Natasha stood up fluidly and moved closer to Coulson, her face still a mask of pleasantness, an inch from his. 

"Never call Bruce a monster again," she carefully articulated in her indifferent tone. "If I hear you say that one more time I will find you and I will skin you."

Coulson gave her a bland smile, not flinching an inch. He had used those exact words to defend her, a long time ago. She did not intimidate him then, and he knew the words weren't for him. They only confirmed his suspicions regarding the nature of the two Avenger’s relationship.

"I understand," Coulson frowned. "Let's get back."

Bruce didn't quite look at her on the way back, or in the next few weeks. He did his yoga somewhere else or not at all. Without him, Natasha couldn't focus. Her skin prickled in a very particular and annoying way and since she still was off the team she soon felt trapped again. Eventually she couldn't take it anymore and went to find Bruce one evening. 

"I need you to do yoga with me again," she said as she entered his lab . His scent was everywhere and she has to push down the need to protect him, to hold him close. "It's getting really annoying not being able to focus, and you are much more experienced with..."

He turned and her instincts turned ablaze. He had dark rings under his eyes, like he hadn't slept in days, and he was breathing heavily. Still in control, like he had to be.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, shifting in his lab coat, "I think I have to stay away from you for a while, until your condition improves. Your hormones affect me, I don't know if it is healthy for me to be around you. It might draw out the Hulk."

Natasha wanted to cry but she knew her face was an indifferent mask as she nodded. 

“Of course, Bruce,” she said, “I understand.”

Clint found her in her room, he kept his distance but asked where she was when they spent the day away from the Tower.

“We just walked around a bit. Sightseeing. I wish I could go back on suppressors and not be so emotional all the fucking time.”

Clint shushes, sitting down on the edge of the bed. 

“What else did you do?” he said. “Something must have happened, I’ve never seen you like this.”

“It was just... nice.” she said. “We talked a lot, and...”

Suddenly she realized, her face fell and she groaned.

“Fuck... He scented me.”

Clint whistled. “Oh man.”

“Yeah. He’s right, he should definitely stay away.”

Natasha looked down at her knees, tucked them under her chin. “Everyone should.”

“Hey,” Clint said, soothingly, reaching out for her. 

“Probably you too. Are you in control?”

He stilled, an inch from her shoulder. “I…”

Natasha sighed. “Just go.”


End file.
